POVERTY REDUCTION STRATEGY TN

in terms of MMR (1998) with 79 deaths per 1 lakh births. It seems that the state is well
on track to reduce the MMR to the required level in 2015.
The most common causes of maternal deaths are hemorrhage, anemia,
puerperal sepsis, obstructed labour, abortion, hypertensive disease of pregnancy,
anemia, bad obstetric history and lack of antenatal care. According to NFHS-3, the
proportion of women (15-49 years) who are anemic was 53.3 percent in Tamil Nadu and
56.2 percent in India in 2005-06 (Appendix Table 1.12). Another important indicator of
maternal care is the number of deliveries conducted by skilled personnel. In 2005-06,
skilled attendants conducted only 48 percent of deliveries in India. This not only
increases the mortality rates of infants and children but also contributes to high maternal
mortality in India. The corresponding figure for Tamil Nadu was 93 percent. The
projection shows that 100 percent of women in the state will give birth under the care of
a skilled birth attendant by 2010.
In terms of place of delivery, in 2005-06, only 41 percent of births occurred in
health institution in India. In the same year, more than 90 percent of births in Tamil
Nadu occurred in health institutions. It seems that almost all births in Tamil Nadu will
occur in medical institution in 2008 (Appendix Table 1.6).
The Government of India has introduced the Janani Suraksha Yojana (a
modification of the National Maternity Benefit Scheme), which provides comprehensive
medical care during pregnancy, child birth and post natal care and thereby endeavor to
improve the level of institutional deliveries and reduce maternal mortality rate. It is
interesting to note that 96.5 percent of pregnant women received at least 3 antenatal
care check-up in Tamil Nadu in 2005-06. The corresponding figure for the country was
only 50.7 (NFHS-3, 2005-06).
(iii) Life Expectancy
The male (female) life expectancy was 62.3 (64.4) years in 1991-95 in Tamil Nadu. The
male expectancy increased to 67 years and female expectancy to 69.8 in 2001-06. In
2001-06, the all India life expectancy values of male and female were 63.9 and 66.9
years. In that period, Tamil Nadu ranked third in term of life expectancy values
(Appendix Table 1.11).
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